Six Months: Rolling along

Doesn’t that sound poetic? Now let’s flesh that out a bit. You are the reason I get up in the morning. Before my alarm. At times too early to mention. In short, you are the reason I am sleep deprived.

You are six months old today, and as I sit here looking at a blank computer screen all I can think about is the fact that I feel more exhausted than I ever remember feeling. For some reason you have stopped sleeping even four hour stretches and wake up at least every two to three hours each night. Combined with Halloween, school, my first week of clinicals (early mornings), and all of the things that need to get done, this is very painful.

Aside from sleeping like a 17.6 pound newborn, you are a delightful fat baby with chubby thighs and big blue eyes. You look very much like Jonathan and Lily looked as babies. You are all over rolls, including rolls over your non-existent wrists. You are ticklish on your thighs and knees and belly and under the chin. You laugh easily and have learned how to squeal with delight. Sometimes you do this when I pick you up from day care. More often than not, you save the squeals and talking for the middle of the night between when you wake up and forty-five minutes later when you decide you should eat a little, stop talking to yourself, and start crying in earnest.

You started this month ponderously rolling from front to back or back to front. It looked so laborious! So taxing! Perhaps my favorite instance of rolling involved you rolling from back to front so that you were facing our bookshelf wall. You pushed yourself up on your arms and in slow motion looked up and up and up, miles of books of all colors stretched out to the ceiling. You stayed like that, just taking in the glory of books. That’s my boy.

You push way up on your belly now, almost get on your knees, pivot on the wooden floors, and roll until you run into something or someone. Then you wail as if the universe has conspired against you because someone put a wall right in your path. We had to put away your other swing because you were constantly trying to roll out and had turned into quite the fall risk.

You have also been known to roll yourself up in things; my bathrobe, any blanket you are laid down upon, and, my favorite, your sister’s new Snow White costume with the glittery skirt. This means you now have a fine dusting of gold glitter all over your face and hair this morning. Not all that glitters is gold, sometimes it’s just an overly roly baby and a Halloween costume with a surplus of glitter.

Some favorites this month are Grandpa, the cat, your lovey, sleeping on your stomach, and trying to grab everything in sight, not necessarily in that order. I am pretty sure Grandpa comes first though, because you hang out with him, smile, make noises when he tries to disappear downstairs… it is pretty cute. You have really taken a liking to Poseidon this month, as he brushes past your bouncer.

You can’t wait to get your hands on that furry creature, and he is starting to look a little nervous around you. Wait, he’s a cat, he always looks nervous. You really like the soft lovey that you have with different textured tags on the end but in a pinch you are also happy grabbing beards, hair, glasses, and jewelry. You are my first child to be an adamant stomach sleeper which is throwing me off. I lay you down on your back, you yell, flip over, and go directly to sleep.

You have spent half the month with some respiratory gunk and half the kids in daycare had croup and double ear infections two weeks ago and I am just knocking on everything wooden in hopes that you don’t get really sick. In the meantime, your cap refill looks good, you are happy and eating well, so I’m not too worried. I did try to listen to your lungs and gained a new respect for anyone who works with pediatric patients. When you have a stethoscope on a child’s chest and he starts babbling? Ow.

I feel like you will be mobile early, like Jonathan was. You are so alert and so interested in the things and people around you that I can almost see you plotting how to get from one place to the other. In other news, you were a dragon for Halloween, wearing the costume all your siblings have worn. But we have no real Halloween pictures because it was the first week of clinicals and man, were things a mess. This month also marked the first time I ran with a baby in a stroller twice in one month. I have lowered the bar that low. You of course fell asleep, but I still prefer solo runs.

You have been with us for half a year, Wesley! I can’t believe how quickly it is flying by, how sweet you are, and how much we love you.